Notch signaling is a highly conserved cell-to-cell communication mechanism, which plays a central role in defining individual cells' behaviors and fates during development. Despite rapidly increasing knowledge of these signaling events, little is known about how spatiotemporal dynamics of receptor signaling across the cell influence signal exchange. To address this challenge, we propose an advanced nanosystem that mimics, enabling simultaneous real-time monitoring and in situ regulation of Notch signaling in a particular cell at any desired location and time with subcellular resolution. Using this new nanotechnology, we first determine force-induced structural features of Notch receptors. We also explore Notch signaling in neural stem cells to determine how the spatiotemporal distribution of Notch signaling across a cell population influences the final fate of individual cels during development. Binary cell communication via Notch.